The Life of Muhammad

Rating:
Summary: the book for those who seek truth about prophets life
Review: a splendid book, the best i have read so far on prophet's life...all those who have any question in mind about prophets life should must read this book..as it is written in a manner that one's interest in its contents keeps on growing as one reads further. every incident is mostly proven right by quranic verses..if not then by the sayings of prophet are used remarkably...which remove all the confusion from the mind of reader.
The writer has clearly stated arab before islam,how prophet started getting messages from allah and how he started coveying message of ALLAH,GOD to the people,what problems he faced,and how he fought along with his companions in the way of GOD.
it does not matter if you believe or not that there is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of GOD,if one has a lust to know what islam is all about.this book is a great help to understand the sprit of islam,the struggle of good and evil,and to know that how a single orphan ..grew into a the most powerful man only with the help of his God...that people believed in him and were ready not only to face the hardest blows of enemies but to die happily for their God,if you want to know this man you must read this book ..you will fall in love with this man.and you should know this man.

Rating:
Summary: Biased.
Review: Dr Haykal has a dangerous approach towards our prophet's life..He claims that the Quran is his only miracle.I don't agree with this view since we cannot ignore so many traditions ( hadith) regarding the other miracles like the splitting of the moon,and his companions' drinking water from his fingers.The scientific method should not mean to accept only things that we can support with our reason. It is also scientific to consider the confirmed traditions.It is just reasonable for our prophet (saw) to have miracles like the previous prohets in the sense that he is the seal of the prophethood .His being the seal of it requires to seal the miracles by having comprehensive miracles. As a result, besides being a comrehensive and easy-to-read book, the view he hold for our prophet's miracles is incorrect.

Rating:
Summary: Biased.
Review: Haykal is a biased historian. He has been very selective in including only those episodes of the Prophets life which support his point of view. In other places, he has silently omitted a few pieces of information which go against his own school of thought. I give you examples;

When the Prophet invited the members of his tribe to his house and gave them the invitation to join Islam, it was only Ali who accepted it. This has been recorded by Haykal but Haykal deliberately omits what the Prophet said in reply to this. He said Ali will be his chief assistant in his life time and his successor after him. This is found in both Tabari and Ibn Ishaq.

At the time of the treaty of Hudaibiya, Umar mutinied against the Prophet and even questioned his Prophethood. Haykal records this episode but does not mention the name of Umar but instead uses the term 'some companions'.

Haykal makes no mention of the episode of Ghadir Khumm, where the Prophet said "Whomsoever I am the Lord of (Mawla), Ali is also his Lord." This hadith has been handed down to us through more than 180 different chains (hence their is no doubt of its authenticity).

At the time of the death of the Prophet, he asked for a pen and paper so that he may write something of importance. However, Umar intervened and said that the illness has overwhelmed the Prophet. Haykal once again does not mention the name of Umar.

Haykal draws a sweeping conclusion that since Abu Bakr led the prayers at the time of the illness of the Prophet, hence he was the obvious choice to succeed. However, the truth is that when the Prophet asked Ayesha to tell Abu Bakr to lead the prayers, Ayesha said that Abu Bakr is too weak to shoulder such a responsibility. Hence the Prophet said to call Umar to lead the prayers, to which Umar upon his arrival said he will not lead the prayers in the presence of Abu Bakr. Then the Prophet said to ask Abu Bakr to lead the prayers and that he will not hear another word. The only conclusion that can be drawn from this episode is that it was immaterial who lead the prayers.

One has to be objective when writing a book on history. Anybody who is searching for the truth should stay clear from this book.

A better book on the Sirat of the Prophet would be Martin Lings, Muhammad.

Rating:
Summary: A catastrophe of a book....Get Lings book instead
Review: Stay away from this book!! It not only contains factual innacuracies and alot of personal conjecture, but worse than that it is written in the worst purple prose. Perhaps he meant well but in the end haykal does more harm than good with his hammy and melodramatic rendering of the biography of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The story of the Prophet can stand on it's own merits, and it certainly does not need the hackneyed embellishments that Haykal so liberally doses out in this book. This "historian" writes in a totally biased and dishonest way, constantly tooting the horn of "why Islam is so great" and why the Holy Prophet was so wonderful, instead of just TELLING THE STORY and letting readers see that for themsleves. If anything I imagine that this would make any non-Muslim interested in the subject immediately suscpicious and dissuaded from reading more.

For a FAR superior biography of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), read Martin Lings classic, "Muhammad: his life from the earliest sources", an incredible book, and an incredible read, regardless of one's religious or personal beliefs. The Lings book is excellent for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and I urge you to pick that up instead of Haykal's well meaning but catastrophic attempt at a biography.

Rating:
Summary: Inaccurate information
Review: The author's views of historical events do not matchup with Quranic stories and mainstream Islamic teachings. The author's words may lead a person to an inaccurate interpretation of Islamic history.

Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: This book explores the life of The Prophet in amazingly deep detail. The author does more than just explore religious ideas. It gives great insight into the historical context that led to the rise of Islam. It sheds light into Christianity and Judaism of the day and how they influenced and even provoked the atmosphere of the Arab nations. The author present Islam as a faith that is based upon pure logic and reason, thus the author does not stoop to the level of needing to convince people through signs and wonders. Haykal contends that the Qu'ran and the powerful rise of Islam's influence and reason is proof enough. A western reader might say that this work proud and boastful, but so for on Haykal has had enough chutzpah to present Islam and the life of the Prophet with passion and full conviction.

Rating:
Summary: A Throwback to Islam's Golden Age
Review: This book is extremely important in these modern times, where so many Muslims erroneously hold the hadiths up higher than the Glorious Qur'an. Over the years all kinds of nonsense involving the supposed mystical practices and miracle workings of the Prophet were subscribed to hadith and taken as gospel, despite the many, MANY things Allah said in the Qur'an about the Unseen being quite limited in our lives... even the Prophet's life.

I'm glad Haykal put together a real biography of Islam's founder in which he cut out all the very un-Islamic, superstitious nonsense the "Hadithians" have inserted into the Faith. This is the second-best book in Islam after the Qur'an itself, and does a much better job of showing how Muhammad "walked the Qur'an" than the whole lot of so-called authenticate mystical hadith.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for the New Muslim
Review: This is a wonderful reasource for anyone seeking Islam, and researching the Prophet (pbuh). The end summary is also very helpful in explaining the basic teachings of Islam.